The Book of Light
Anniversary Edition
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- $10.99
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
With a powerful introduction by Ross Gay and a moving afterword by Sidney Clifton, this special anniversary edition of The Book of Light offers new meditations and insights on one of the most beloved voices of the 20th century.
Though The Book of Light opens with thirty-nine names for light, we soon learn the most meaningful name is Lucille—daughter, mother, proud Black woman. Known for her ability to convey multitudes in few words, Clifton writes into the shadows—her father’s violations, a Black neighborhood bombed, death, loss—all while illuminating the full spectrum of human emotion: grief and celebration, anger and joy, empowerment and so much grace.
A meeting place of myth and the Divine, The Book of Light exists “between starshine and clay” as Clifton’s personas allow us to bear the world’s weight with Atlas and witness conversations between Lucifer and God. While names and dates mark this text as a social commentary responding to her time, it is haunting how easily this collection serves as a political palimpsest of today. We leave these poems inspired—Clifton shows us Superman is not our hero. Our hero is the Black female narrator who decides to live. And what a life she creates! “Won’t you celebrate with me?”
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Thoughtfully introduced by Ross Gay and with an afterword by Sidney Clifton, this 30th anniversary edition highlights the timeless power and relevance of Clifton's writing. One of the most celebrated and beloved voices in poetry, Clifton brings to vivid life the intersections of the sacred and the secular ("between starshine and clay") and the everyday and the extraordinary with her trademark simplicity and precision. She finds shining language for personal reckoning and pain: "see in the path of his going/ the banners of regret," she writes in "my lost father." "who is that running away/ with my life?" she asks in "c.c. rider." The personae and figures she conjures (Lucifer, God, Atlas, Leda, the yeti poet, Clark Kent) display her wide imaginative range. The collection includes her much anthologized masterpiece that opens, "won't you celebrate with me/ what i have shaped into/ a kind of life? i had no model..." and unforgettably concludes, "come celebrate/ with me that everyday/ something has tried to kill me/ and has failed." What Gay calls "a kind of sturdy, unwavering witness to that fundamental connection" between people is everywhere apparent in Clifton's work. This essential edition is an excellent reminder of the poet's inimitable gifts.
